Round Rock, Pflugerville police: Be wary of credit card fraud

Suspected credit card fraud prompted Pflugerville police to arrest a man who has been charged with similar crimes in three other states.

Edwin Rodriguez-Mordouch, 26, was pulled over July 4 by Pflugerville police for excessive speeding, but it was the 29 credit cards he illegally possessed that landed him in jail. He was also found with a programmer that may have been used to copy credit card information, although that is difficult to prove, Pflugerville Assistant Police Chief Jim McLean said.

“We can’t confirm it was a skimming scam, but we can confirm there were credit cards with other people’s information on them,” said McLean, who was the arresting officer.

Credit card information can be copied, or skimmed, by attaching devices to money machines — typically ATMs or gas pumps. Such cases are rare, McLean said, but not necessarily new. A federal consumer advisory warning was issued five years ago warning against credit card skimming.

“The thieves can get everything they need to drain your account or to make unauthorized purchases,” the consumer advisory stated.

These thieves typically operate on the move, Round Rock Police Detective Kurt McBride said, with illegal operations sometimes traced from the Austin area all the way to Corpus Christi, and often to other states. The number of Round Rock credit card fraud cases is up in 2016 after remaining stable from 2014 to 2015.

“Credit card fraud is kind of the flavor of the month as far as crime trends go,” McBride said.

Felony warrants in three other states — Missouri, Louisiana and Alabama — in addition to existing charges in Texas prompted Pflugerville police to transfer Rodriguez-Mordouch to the Travis County Correctional Complex, where he is booked on nine counts while a federal case is built against him, McLean said.

Protecting against credit card fraud and capturing these criminals is increasingly difficult because the vast majority of cases still occur online, he said.

“They know how to use the card quickly, make some purchase and try not to raise any alarms with the credit card company,” McLean said.

Erin Dufner, Better Business Bureau chief marketing officer for the Central Texas region, said safeguards against such crimes are similar regardless of how the data could be stolen. BBB and local law enforcement recommend regularly monitoring bank and credit card statements for questionable activity. McLean, for example, had his credit card information stolen and used by someone in Florida to purchase flooring from New York.

“Luckily, my credit card company had safeguards in place for when they see unusual purchases, so they stopped it and nothing happened as a result,” he said.

Dufner credits consumers for becoming more savvy despite being more vulnerable to such attacks. Better technology should also pave the way toward less instances of credit card fraud, she said.

Dufner points to the new EMV chips installed into newer credit cards as an example. However, no new laws enforce credit card companies or retailers to accommodate the new technology, meaning every card is still at risk of being hacked.

“The EMV chip system is fairly new, so it’s a little too early to see and tell how that’ll impact credit card fraud and unauthorized transactions. But it’s definitely an improvement to avoid counterfeiting,” Dufner said.